How to Root OnePlus One!

For those of you who want to root your OnePlus One (Why root? See Why Root Android?) to run rooted apps or want to install a custom ROM, here’s a step-by-step tutorial guide you can follow for all Windows, Mac, and Linux computers. Rooting the OnePlus One requires the user to unlock the bootloader. Unlocking bootloader will ERASE EVERYTHING ON YOUR PHONE, so make a backup of everything including your personal photos, videos, etc beforehand! YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!!! Will rooting OnePlus One void my warranty? Technically yes, but you can unroot/unbrick completely back to 100% stock so you can always unvoid warranty. So, if you have a Window, Mac OS X, or Linux (like Ubuntu) computer, let’s go ahead and root this bad boy! Before we begin, you can also download all the files you need here for all Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux/Ubuntu: Download:

Step 1. First power off your OnePlus One, then hold down Volume Up and Power buttons together for about 3 seconds. When you see “fastboot mode” with CyanogenMod logo, let go of both buttons. Then connect a micro-USB cable from your computer to your OnePlus One. Step 2. For Mac or Linux, skip to Step 3 as you do not need to install drivers. For Windows, open Device Manager (go to Control Panel->Hardware & Sound->Device Manager). If you have previously installed ADB drivers for other phones like Nexus 4 or Nexus 5, you may see “Android ADB Interface”. If you see that, skip to Step 3. However, if you don’t see that and you see “Android” with an exclamation mark, follow our video tutorial and install ADB drivers. Download: Download ADB Drivers Step 3. Next, you will need fastboot files. You don’t need to download the whole Android SDK (which can take hours) to get this, just download fastboot.zip and unzip, you should get a folder called fastboot with all the files you need for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Download: Download fastboot.zip Also you need to download TWRP or CWM recovery image and put it in the same folder as fastboot. Download: Download TWRP or CWM Recovery for OnePlus One Step 4. Next, open up a command prompt (type “cmd” in Windows search bar) or terminal for Mac/Linux. WARNING: This is where we unlock the bootloader on the OnePlus One. By doing this step, it will ERASE EVERYTHING ON YOUR PHONE!!! Then type: For Windows: cd Downloadcd fastbootfastboot oem unlock For Mac OSX: cd Downloadcd fastbootchmod 755 *./fastboot-mac oem unlock For Linux/Ubuntu: cd Downloadcd fastbootchmod 755 *sudo ./fastboot-linux oem unlock Step 5. Your phone will reboot couple times and reboot. Once rebooted, simply sign in to your account then go to Settings->About Phone and hit the “Build Number” 5 times until it says “You have enabled development settings”. Step 6. Then hit the back button once, you should see a new menu option called “Developer options”, press on that. And make sure “Update CM recovery” is checked OFF. This is so your phone won’t try to re-install stock recovery over the custom CWM/TWRP recovery we will be installing. Besides, we no longer need a stock recovery once rooted, CWM/TWRP recovery will handle everything for us. Step 7. Download and copy SuperSU zip file onto your OnePlus One. Download: Download SuperSU zip file Step 8. Put your phone into fastboot mode like you did in Step 1 and connect micro-USB cable to your OnePlus One. Step 9. Then type: (You can also copy & paste duh!) For Windows: fastboot flash recovery openrecovery-twrp-2.7.1.1-bacon.imgfastboot erase cache For Mac OSX: ./fastboot-mac flash recovery openrecovery-twrp-2.7.1.1-bacon.img./fastboot-mac erase cache For Linux/Ubuntu: sudo ./fastboot-linux flash recovery openrecovery-twrp-2.7.1.1-bacon.imgsudo ./fastboot-linux erase cache Also you can replace the file name “openrecovery-twrp-2.7.1.1-bacon.img” with the recovery image you want to use (e.g. CWM Recovery image) but I do recommend TWRP Recovery as it’s more versatile. You can also use OTG Flash Drives with TWRP which can be handy in leaving all of your large backup ROMs separate from your phone’s storage. Step 10. Unplug your micro-USB cable as we don’t need it anymore. Then hold down Volume Down and Power buttons together. When your phone reset and you see OnePlus One logo, let go of both buttons. Step 11. You should now see TWRP Recovery, choose “Install”. Then browse your storage and find the SuperSU zip file you copied over earlier and install it. Step 12. Reboot your OnePlus One and you should find SuperSU app. Open the app and if you don’t get any errors, your OnePlus One has been fully rooted. Also if it asks you to update binaries, say “yes”. Step 13. You can install and open a rooted app like Titanium Backup app to verify you have full root. You should see a Superuser request window. Congratulations! You’ve rooted your OnePlus One in “High On Android” style. Pat yourself on the back and go show off to all your friends that your OnePlus One is better than their phone. Q&A Q: I have a question! A: Please post your questions below in the comments box. Q: How can I thank you for your tutorial? A: I don’t take donations but if you could PLEASE subscribe to my Zedomax YouTube channel, that would help me greatly and thank you! Credits – +ChainFire for awesome SuperSU, XDA user Acer73 for Philz CWM, and TWRP for TWRP Recovery!

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54 Responses

I rooted my OPO for the 3rd time. I never replaced the recovery manager, just booted it, then flashed the supersu zip. Just got another OTA update, that unrooted my OPO. Would be much easier if I could install TWRP or something like that. The question is: will OTA updates still work, if I do that?

i have a samsung s4 gt-i9505 and rooted it awhile back but struggled and didn’t download anything. At the moment it has android 4.2.2 and i’d like to get the latest kik kat as well as unvoid the warranty. how would i do this? I know this a lot but any help would be apreciated. thanks

Hi max i followed ur step by step…i got 1 + logo and then cynogenmod img is spinning i have waited for 1 hour but i didnot get home screen ..what to do now (i dont know how to factory reset) help me please…and i am new to android 🙁

Great tutorial and thank you for the files. I’m a noob to Android, having migrated over from iOS, and I have a mac, so this tutorial hit the nail on the head. Great job. Thanks for putting together the files too.

hi, i’m having HUGE issues with my OPO. Stock rom, no root. My phone reboots constantly. I was able to unlock the bootloader and perform a full wipe from simple recovery, but this doesn’t resolve the problem. Every time I turn on the phone random apps keeps crashing and messages appear on the screen: “unfortunately app x stopped working” then after a while it restarts and the same thing happens after the restart. Do you think I have to send it back for substitution or there is a way around, maybe from adb?

Hi.
First thanks for the howto.
Now one thing.
Once Titanium backup has been dl I get an error message saying: sorry couldn’t access root privileges This app will not work! Please check that your rom is rooted and try again…

thank you so much for putting up this guide, it does help a lot with a non-tech person like me. 3 days ago, my oneplus phone had a Locksreen error, which leads to the phone completely non-usable, it force me to do a factory reset, then, it end up in a boot loop.

I had been searching days for solution, and glad to find yours video and guide here which looks like the easiest to understand for me.

anyway, cut a long story short, I had been following the step, but when I was in step 4, in the cmd, instead of showing “OKAY”, I got a message “Fastboot is not recognized as an internal or external command”.

Worked as written by using my Ubuntu Linux desktop machine with one exception. Had to reboot to TWRP, tap Wipe, then “Swipe to Factory Reset”, and then reboot the phone, as Keith mentions above. (note: could not communicate with the phone using my laptop with Ubuntu Linux on an SD card.)

Hey guys. I missed on the part where you have to add the SuperSU folder into your android phone. I have already installed on recovery tool by TeamWin. How do i go about adding the folder again? Thank you!

i did TWRP Recovery and after step 11 i couldnt find Super SU and while trying to reboot it asked whether to update SU and i said yes and after that while trying to reboot the phone is standing still at CYANOGEN without any action. So please guide me if anything can be done

“There is now SU binary installed, and super SU cannot install it. This is a problem!
If you just upgraded to android 4.3, you need to manually re-root-consult the relevant forums for your device!” – this is the message I got after opening app…. what does that mean.. what should i do now? @

My OnePlus One phone got stuck. I followed the exact same set of instructions, except that i tried installing Latest version of Super SU. Now my phone is stuck at the Cyanogen screen post startup and wont load anything else. Please help